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The Four Stages of Global Warming Denial
2 Comments | Posted by gimme-five in Environment, Politics
The Four Stages of Global Warming Denial is a great article I just read on one of my favorite environmental websites, Treehugger. The article discusses the four stances that an individual takes when opposing action to stop global warming. These stages are as follows:
- Global Warming Doesn’t Exist.
- This is not a realistic position today.
- It exists, but humans are not causing it.
- The IPCC states that the scientific consensus confirms humans cause global warming.
- 928 abstracts analyzed to check to see if this scientific consensus holds: zero disagree with the consensus.
- Humans are causing it, but there’s nothing we can do about it without destroying our economy.
- Probably not – the economy may go through transition period that might suck, but it’s not like it can’t transition. It’s not like solar or wind power, for example can’t be an industry.
- It is possible to do something about it, but it will hurt some large (dirty) corporations.
- First, I don’t feel like I owe Exxon Mobil or any of the big oil companies anything. If they fall to pieces it will hurt my index funds some, but I’d rather have a clean world.
- Secondly, these companies should be, as the article says, investing serious sums of their cash into alternative energy (not PR campaigns) so they can be the leaders when alternative energy is big news. Currently the amounts they are investing are 1% or less of their funds.
Although Treehugger articles are clearly going to be biased towards protecting the environment, this is still a very good read with some solid facts. Definitely check it out.
2 Comments for The Four Stages of Global Warming Denial
Shaniqua | June 6, 2006 at 1:41 pm
Author comment by george | June 7, 2006 at 11:03 am
“Now, some politicians want to label carbon dioxide a pollutant. Imagine if they succeed. What will our lives be like then?” Plants will suffocate for lack of carbon dioxide! Little girls blowing on dandelions will be thrown into prison!
Classic.
By the way, I was hoping some of our more conservative visitors would comment on this article or Shaniqua’s comment… Mike, Jon?
The moniker “Treehugger” marginalizes the readership. This enviro-denial is actively fed by interested players, so it takes an effort to recognize the four stages and thankfully there are people out there debunking obvious shillery.
The LA Times and The New Republic have this article by Jonathan Chait combating forces of denial. He’s interesting to read even if you don’t agree with the totality of his liberal hawkish output.
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w060605&s=chait060506
I HAD ALWAYS thought that nobody had a lower opinion than I as to the analytical capacities of the American public. Then I discovered the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
The institute is a conservative think tank in Washington that is less embarrassed than most conservative think tanks about raking in gobs of money from oil companies and propagating views that happen to comport precisely with those of their donors. It has been running ads attempting to cast doubt on the notion that fossil fuels bear any relation to global warming.
The oil companies’ — sorry, I mean the institute’s — approach to this challenge is to make people think fondly of carbon dioxide. It turns out to be a deeply misunderstood molecule. “We breathe it out,” a narrator explains in one ad. “Plants breathe it in.” We see an image of a young girl in pigtails blowing on a dandelion. The ad proceeds to explain that all this good stuff faces some sinister, amorphous peril. “Now, some politicians want to label carbon dioxide a pollutant. Imagine if they succeed. What will our lives be like then?” Plants will suffocate for lack of carbon dioxide! Little girls blowing on dandelions will be thrown into prison!
Can anybody actually believe this?
I can see why the ads would identify the enemy as “politicians” (rather than scientists). But what motive would these politicians have to attack a harmless little molecule? Do they hate plants? Are they in the pocket of the dandelion lobby?
The ads don’t say. The concept is so unpersuasive, even on its own terms, I can’t believe that Americans are stupid enough to fall for it. People may be dumb, but if they were that dumb, the world would be a different place. There would be thousands of technicians on call to help us operate our flush toilets. Emergency rooms would be filled with people who attempted to clean out their earwax with steak knives.
No, I prefer to believe that most people aren’t incapacitatingly stupid, only extremely stupid. That seems to be President Bush’s belief as well. Take, for instance, his statement May 24 on the same topic: “People in our country are rightly concerned about greenhouse gases and the environment, and I can understand why — I am too. As a matter of fact, I try to tell people, let’s quit the debate about whether greenhouse gases are caused by mankind or by natural causes; let’s just focus on technologies that deal with the issue.”……..
It’s well put. I’m not suggesting that anyone take TNR too seriously, but they have some entertaining people on staff.